For so many years, I’ve been wanting to visit the Capul fortress-church complex in Capul Island, Northern Samar but it was only last weekend that I finally made it. And I was in awe of the structures.

During my revisit at the Oslob church, I was surprised that the unfinished cuartel was already cleaned up and light fixtures were already placed for spectacular lighting at night.

But what about these pink marble slabs used to patch up some gaps?

Their legacy can be found scattered around the islands from Luzon to Mindanao and in remote regions and localities in the Philippines.

Atop of a wooden door at the sacristy is a relief of a church that is unlike the present structure.

Oslob has always been frequented by Muslim slave raiders but in 1813, with the aid of Fray Julian Bermejo’s string of watchtowers, the local armed militia was able to repel and capture the leader of a raiding party off Sumilon Island. This decisive event led to the formation of a new town that is now the current poblacion of Oslob. Prior to that and located around two kilometers south, are the ruins of a former fortified settlement called Daanglungsod.

The Muslim slave raids in the middle of the 18th to the middle of the 19th centuries were indeed one of the darkest years of colonial Philippines. It is estimated that during this period, around 200,000 natives were abducted. Because of the ineffectiveness and lack of political will of the governing colonial power to stem these raids, and prior to 1848, the navy vessels were often outrun by the faster prahus, or, in the case of Bicol, refused the request of the mayors to arm their towns for fear that the townspeople will revolt against them, these depradations dragged on for more than a hundred years.

The pirate wind, locally called the habagat or the southwest monsoon blows between May and October. It intensifies in August and September of which the Ilanun (or Iranun or Lanun) and later, the Balangingi (Iranun and their captives who were integrated into their community living in the island of Balangingi) took advantage. These were the months that communities across Southeast Asia were afraid of.

Muslim slave raiding is one of the darkest history in the country.

Located front-right of the church of Oslob, just outside the perimeter stone fence and near the sea, at the intersection of Calle Aeternidad (Eternidad?) and the end of Calle Aragones, an unfinished building made of coral blocks stand. This unfinished structure was the cuartel, intended for the Spanish soldiers or guardia civil.

Conquest and colonization of the archipelago was not an easy task for the ruling Spaniards as they have made not a few enemies who were intent of sabotaging their efforts. Not only are the enemies limited within the country but outside powers like other European colonizers were lusting to expand as well.